From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Ben Hutchings Subject: Re: [RFC PATCH] Ethtool style in kernel network driver configuration. Date: Thu, 11 Jun 2009 15:54:50 +0100 Message-ID: <1244732090.2785.12.camel@achroite> References: <20090610173243.17262.91308.stgit@srv002.fuzzey.net> <1244685768.4616.22.camel@deadeye> <4A30A884.9000508@gmail.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: netdev@vger.kernel.org, nico@cam.org To: mfuzzey@gmail.com Return-path: Received: from smarthost01.mail.zen.net.uk ([212.23.3.140]:53165 "EHLO smarthost01.mail.zen.net.uk" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1763198AbZFKOyy (ORCPT ); Thu, 11 Jun 2009 10:54:54 -0400 In-Reply-To: <4A30A884.9000508@gmail.com> Sender: netdev-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: On Thu, 2009-06-11 at 08:47 +0200, Martin Fuzzey wrote: > Ben Hutchings wrote: > > Who needs this feature? Why not use ethtool in an initramfs? > > > > > > Forcing speed and duplex is occasionally needed to work around a link > > partner that doesn't implement autonegotiation correctly. I don't see > > that it should ever be needed in platform configuration. If the driver > > doesn't detect the MAC/PHY capabilities correctly then the driver should > > be fixed. Overriding the settings once will not prevent an unsupported > > mode being selected later. > > > > > To summarize the recent points I made in the smc91x: forcing speed thread : > > 1) Setting up and maintaining an initramfs can increase the complexity > for embedded systems - it's another image file to build, distribute, > update to bootloader etc. This doesn't seem like a huge burden if you're net-booting. And if you're not net-booting, it's not critical that you override the link mode immediately; you can do it in the regular init scripts. > 2) While I of course agree that broken drivers should be fixed, what > about broken hardware? Broken hardware? Why, I never have to deal with that. ;-) > I currently have this situation on one of my boards - 100Mbps doesn't > work due to electrical issues (bad routing). > This board is already in the wild - if it is fixed one day it will be a > new hardware revision and the code will have to cope with both. > Sure the "right" way is to fix the hardware but that's not always > economically or logistically possible. > I suspect such situations are not uncommon in the embedded world. So, as I thought, you actually want to disable some modes completely. That is not what ethtool does. Ben. -- Ben Hutchings, Senior Software Engineer, Solarflare Communications Not speaking for my employer; that's the marketing department's job. They asked us to note that Solarflare product names are trademarked.